1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic information retrieval apparatus. More specifically, it relates to an electronic information retrieval apparatus which registers originals such as documents and drawings in memory in the form of picture information, to read and retrieve required picture information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various information retrieval methods have been proposed in the art in order to control great volumes of documents and drawings.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are illustrative of typical conventional information retrieval methods. Particularly FIG. 1 shows an example of a cabinet type information retrieval method, and FIG. 2 shows an example of a keyword type information retrieval method.
In the cabinet type information retrieval method as shown in FIG. 1, data 21 formed by a plurality of pages are inserted in files 23 with data names 24. The plurality of files 23 assigned with the data names 24 are partitioned by guides 25 every common items, to be contained in a cabinet 26.
In retrieval operation, a guide 25 for a required item is retrieved to extract the required file from the plurality of files 23, thereby to fetch required data 21 from the file 23.
In the keyword type information retrieval method as shown in FIG. 2, data 21 formed by a plurality of pages are inserted in files 23. Labels 27 assigned with keywords for specifying the respective pages of the data 21 are attached to the files 23, which are contained in a cabinet 26.
In order to fetch required data 21 in the keyword type information retrieval method, a file 23 for a required item is extracted through observation of the labels 27 which are attached to the files 23 contained in the cabinet 26. Data 21 indicated by a required keyword is retrieved from the file 23.
In the cabinet type information retrieval method, however, required data must be retrieved from prescribed items while making reference to a list of correspondence between guides and data names in troublesome operations. In the keyword type information retrieval method, on the other hand, it has been extremely difficult to systemize keywords so that only object data can be selected.